Elderly take too many prescription drugs, experts warn

Doctors too often prescribe too many or the wrong prescriptions to elderly people, according a report in the medical journal The Lancet.

More research is necessary to change this tendency, say the authors of one report. Many elderly are prescribed drugs that are inappropriate for them, and in many cases the drugs are overused or underused, the article said. To ensure appropriate prescribing of drugs to the elderly, care should be provided by a multidisciplinary team, said Dr. Anne Spinewine of the Universite Catholique de Louvain, in Brussels.

Older patients also are at high-risk for having drug interactions, and more research is necessary to document these interactions, experts said in a second article in The Lancet.

Drug substitutions saved the government $13 million last year, but more drug substitutions under Medicare Part B would have saved an additional $6 million, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services concluded in a recent report to Congress.